He will bring the freshest-ever arm to the Hall of Fame induction ceremony Sunday. He made 1,035 appearances and pitched 1,089 1/3 innings.

He also finished second twice in the Cy Young Award voting, won two National League save titles, blew out the candles often enough to get San Diego its second World Series appearance i 1998, and set the all-time saves record with 601, since broken by Mariano Rivera.

Not everyone salutes Hoffman’s efficiency. There is a backlash against those who rule the ninth inning, usually stirred by those who never played in one.

Hoffman’s save percentage was a touch under 89 percent. Rivera, who will get his Hall pass in 2019, had a percentage a touch over 89. Joe Nathan’s percentage was higher than either. Kenley Jansen rounds off to 90 percent and has the best WHIP (0.888) of any closer in that category. It’s just a matter of staying healthy through 250 more saves before he nears the place Hoffman occupies this weekend.

There are only six closers in the Hall. Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers, Bruce Sutter and Goose Gossage did not just show up at the end, like Wilford Brimley in “Absence of Malice.” They were their own setup men. Dennis Eckersley was as lethal a ninth-inning man as has ever lived, but was also a premier starter.

Is the save too cheap? Shouldn’t you get more than one-ninth of the outs to enter Cooperstown?

This is a tough one for those who have argued against designated hitter candidates. Baseball used to frown on specialization. Then the DH came along and allowed distinguished hitters to hang on and cash checks when they were useless otherwise.

That line of thinking has kept Edgar Martinez waiting. It will be interesting to see if it works against David Ortiz. But when Hoffman’s critics say his stealthy appearances should be judged as harshly, it’s hard to refute that.

Gossage had three 100-inning seasons once he became a relief pitcher. Sparky Lyle had six. Fingers had six. Sutter five. Hoffman’s high was 90. In 1998, he saved 53 games and pitched 73 innings.

That was the season Hoffman entered 16 games with men on base and pitched more than one inning 15 times. Six years later, Hoffman entered two games with men on base and had to get more than three outs only six times.

Hoffman needed 30 or more pitches only twice in his final six seasons. In 2005 alone, he threw fewer than 10 pitches 13 times. Since he worked two innings on Sept. 29, 2004, against the Giants, he never was asked to get more than three outs.

Gossage, in 1978, worked more than one inning in 39 games. While trying to get the Yankees abreast of the Red Sox, he had three-inning outings on back-to-back days in September and then got five outs the next day.

But Hoffman strongly believed he was a resource that deserved hoarding. When he was 41, he had a 0.908 WHIP for the Brewers and saved 37 games. Gossage pitched until he was 42 but wasn’t effective past 33.

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It helped that Hoffman was always recasting himself. He was a former shortstop out of Savanna High who pumped gas as a young closer but morphed into a four-pitch magician who eventually got you with an unsurpassed changeup. In 1998, he pitched in 66 games and gave up 21 walks and two home runs.

How did the closer become the one-trick pony, and how can we expect him to function when we ask him to do something else?

That was the world into which Hoffman was thrown. He did that job as well as anyone ever has. And that job has been essential to winning, at least until Houston managed to win last year’s World Series after Ken Giles came apart.

Ray Miller, the former Pirates pitching coach, sneered at the phenomenon and said anybody could handle a ninth-inning lead with all the advantages therein. Then the Pirates couldn’t hold a two-run lead in Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS in Atlanta. Jim Leyland, Miller’s manager, got to a World Series and won it six years later in Florida, and Robb Nen was his come-hell-or-high-water closer.

When Sutter left St. Louis and signed with Atlanta, Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog said, “I just got 30 games dumber.”

Six players will be inducted Sunday, which makes for a long and steamy afternoon. If the Hall has any sense of mercy or history, the final speaker should be Hoffman.